Easter Egg Hunt

Today we attended our church’s Easter Egg Hunt.  (We were supposed to go to Washington this weekend to spend the holiday with Steve’s family, but the flights filled up.)  It was Claire’s first egg hunt, and she caught on very quickly.  We had a great time!!

The Easter Bunny was a little scary.  Fortunately, Daddy was there to make it “all better.”

Here’s a video of the beginning of the hunt.

Our church collected and filled 10,000 eggs.  There were eggs everywhere in the field.  What fun!

The eggs were filled with candy, but I don’t think Claire ever knew that.  Here’s her take – a basket-full!

After the egg hunt, we went to the park.  For the very first time, Claire wanted to swing.  And she LOVED it!

It’s been a great day!!

Baby Norton’s Heartbeat – Love at first sound!!

You made all the delicate, inner parts of my body and knit me together in my mother’s womb.  Thank You for making me so wonderfully complex!  Your workmanship is marvelous – how well I know it!  You watched me as I was being formed in utter seclusion, as I was woven together in the dark of the womb.  You saw me before I was born.  Every day of my life was recorded in Your book.  Every moment was laid out before a single day had passed.  (Psalm 139:13-16 NLT)

How amazing!!!

Fun With MiMi and PopPop

MiMi and PopPop came to visit last weekend.  They came in on Friday and stayed until Monday.  We had a wonderful time!!

We just relaxed on Friday night and let Claire play with MiMi and PopPop.  She had the best time!  On Saturday PopPop, Steve and Claire stayed home while MiMi and I went out to lunch and went shopping.  We had a wonderful time!  It’s always nice to spend an afternoon with my mommy!

Ready for church on Sunday morning

Lately Claire has started cutting her eyes at everyone.  This is usually followed by loud giggles.  I finally got a picture of this silliness!

After church, MiMi and PopPop treated us to Neely’s Interstate Bar-B-Que!  It was de-lish!!  (You might be familiar with Down Home with the Neelys, a show on The Food Network.  Their family owns Interstate Bar-B-Que in Memphis.)

Yummy!

To work off our delicious lunch, we headed to Mud Island River Park.

At Mud Island, they have a scale model of the Mississippi River.  Claire and I waded through it.  Claire said the water was “icy,” but she wanted to play in it anyway.

MiMi and PopPop

View of downtown from Mud Island

MiMi and Claire

MiMi and PopPop took us to Cracker Barrel for breakfast Monday morning.

Claire and MiMi playing the peg game

Stopping to smell the pansies

We had a great time with MiMi and PopPop!  We are so glad you came to visit!!  We love you!!!

Stop and Kiss the Tulips

Most of us are familiar with the phrase, “Stop, and smell the roses.”  But in Claire’s world, we stop and kiss the tulips.

Today we went to the St. Louis Zoo.  It’s one of our favorite places to visit.

In the butterfly garden

In Claire’s world, we also kiss butterflies.

Elephants!

Muntee (or as the rest of us call it “monkey”)

One of our favorite St. Louis Zoo exhibits

Claire and Daddy with the penguins

Claire and Daddy with the puffins

In the tulip garden

After we left the zoo, we went to the YMCA to swim.  They have a zero-depth entry and great water toys as well as a water slide.  Claire LOVES it!

After a very full and fun day, it’s time for night-nights.  Our sleeping beauty!

Shymming!!

Almost every evening for the past two weeks we have gone swimming, or as Claire calls it “shymming.”  She LOVES it!  I took some video tonight, although she was distracted by all of the other kids in the pool and was not showing off all of her skills.  It’s a lot of fun, and she’s doing great!

Claire’s pro-shymming skills

We are so proud of our girl!  And we LOVE the way she says “shymming!”

I had a few other short videos, but I never could get the them to load.  (I suspect it’s the incredibly slow hotel internet.)  Hope you enjoyed these!

Missouri’s First State Capitol

Today we went back to St. Charles and toured Missouri’s first state capitol building.  The picture above is the street view and is actually the backside of the building as all buildings in the area actually faced the Missouri River.  Here’s a picture of the front.

It was a great tour.  They have done an amazing job preserving everything from 1820.  Claire felt a little stifled, as she was unable to run around or touch things; but she managed just fine.

I didn’t take any pictures inside.  I should have, but I was just too busy looking things over.

A few other buildings in St. Charles

I highly recommend a visit to St. Charles if you’re ever in the St. Louis area.